League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles, San Bernardino County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Linda Kaye Jones Answers Questions Candidate for Member of the State Assembly; District 36

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What does California need to do to address the current budget crisis?

Many citizens believe that in order to maintain quality infrastructure such as quality schools, expanded access to health care, public safety and other essential services, California needs to raise additional revenues. This is not an either or question, in addition to monitoring expenditures, the legislature must look at limitations on revenue particularly in the areas of tax cuts/credits and impose stronger performance and accountability standards on all tax expenditures to determine whether or not they are achieving our highest general benefit to minimize the restriction on state revenue streams that can be used for education and other infrastructure funding. There should be a sunset on and periodic review of all tax programs, credits/incentives because needs and priorities change and the legislature should have the flexibility to meet the changing needs of its citizens and the economy. A multi year budget process that establishes strategic priorities with committed funding for infrastructure needs would be most advantageous in the area of budget reform in light of legislative terms limits. Assembly Speaker Bass' proposal for a tax commission that will study ways to bring our state's revenue collection into the 21st century is a step in the right direction.

2. What should the state's priorities be for K-12 education? For the Community College System?

a. Maintaining the integrity of the Proposition 98 funding guarantee and stabilizing the public financing of public education K-12 and higher education through budget reform to insure the necessary funding to bring CA in the top quartile of states.

b. Fund the development and maintenance of a statewide student data base system

c. Implement the option of combining academic and career technical education to improve high school outcomes to support the need to increase student engagement and eliminate students dropping out of school. This is also an area we can refocus the discussions on academic achievement and youth development as a public safety issue and alternative to suppression and incarceration. Resources must be allocated for not only after school programs but also standardized alternative and career technical education

We need to ensure student access and affordability to our community colleges and provide the necessary funding and support to ensure that the Colleges have access to the tools and resources needed to track and respond to long-term economic and workforce trends.

3. What measures would you support to address California's water needs?

We need to educate our citizens to evaluate their level of consumption and to take responsibility to further minimize the negative impacts our lifestyles are having on our resources. With the State's projected population growth, we must take bold actions to assure sufficient water delivery to residents. We need to make investments consistent with statewide strategies. The building of the peripheral canal is an important step in that strategy. We are trying to manage numerous systems such as ground water levels, water quality and reclamation, in addition to protecting habitat, conservation, storage and imported water. Effective and innovative planning is essential to addressing the State's water crisis.

4. What should the Legislature be doing to address the needs of Californians without health insurance?

We need to continue to advocate towards the long term goal of having a single payer system, however in the meantime, we need to focus on identifying funding for incremental reforms that will expand and insure access to quality health care. The current system is too complex and out of control and out of reach for many. The biggest issues that need to be addressed are access, affordability and quality. In the immediate, I believe that the CA Healthy Family program can be expanded to include increased access for working families with children. Medi-cal needs to be expanded to assist those that are medically disabled or just have medical needs but do not qualify for partial or full disability. There are too many individuals who have paid into a system of state taxes yet, when they are at their most vulnerable moment can not get basic healthcare because they are not poor enough or rich enough to pay for it. Also, we need to identify and expand models of best practice involving public/private sector mixes that have already demonstrated increased access, efficiency and equity whether native or abroad. Any solution must be sustainable beyond an election cycle.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League. 

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 27, 2008 07:33
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